"It just happened", exclaims, relieved, Valérie, 57, watching the huge trimaran of her "darling" François Gabart move away, whose edges graze the walls of the lock which separates it from the large basin of the port of Saint-Malo.
For the first time, several latest generation Ultims, gigantic trimarans 32 meters long and 23 meters wide, entered the port of the corsair city.
The latter is only accessible by crossing the Naye lock, 150 meters long and only 25 meters wide, at the cost of a complex maneuver: counting the fenders protecting the boats from shocks, there only 50 centimeters of margin on each side.
The passage of these giants of the seas therefore implies a precise organization, calibrated according to the tides and the weather, the Ultims and their mast of about thirty meters becoming difficult to maneuver in winds greater than 15 knots (28 km / h) , according to Thomas de La Broise, deputy port commander in Saint-Malo.
After being positioned in the axis of the lock using a pontoon, taking advantage of a light wind, the boats are pulled by hand using ropes, under the watchful eye of several boatmen, lock passage specialists.
For this first passage, the tension rose a notch in the crowd massed in the bleachers set up for the occasion.
She held her breath in silence during this spectacular maneuver before letting her applause burst.
"You're the best", says Valérie to the navigator François Gabart, who waits, all smiles, for the filling of the lock, in the center of his dark blue and fluorescent yellow Ultim SVR-Lazartigues, with a futuristic design.
The largest boats on the Route du Rhum, the Ultims are also the fastest: they are capable of speeds of more than 80 km/h at sea, and some are worth around twenty million euros.
The last Ultims - eight are engaged in total this year - were to enter the port of Saint-Malo a little later in the evening... before reproducing the operation identically but in the opposite direction two days before the departure, scheduled for November 6, to set sail.
© 2022 AFP